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60

Interesting spin-off

Operation Raccoon City is a spin-off of the Resident Evil franchise like "What if we go full throttle on the Third Person Shooter genre".

And that's exactly what RE ORC does. You play a bunch of Umbrella Security Service agents trapped inside Raccoon City. In fact, you are the very reason why this town turned to Hell on Earth. So you have to accomplished several missions to please Umbrella in order to get the right to be evacuated from there.

ORC's plot is as simple as that and that's ok. The problem is, the game developers don't seem to know if they have to stay consistent about the franchise canon or if they must alter everything. The result is that we get a mixed bag of both.
The campaign offers great fan-service moments by making you visit famous locations and fighting enemies from RE2 and 3. Some scenes are even directly copy/past from the originals games.
But on the other hand, places like the park, the police station etc... are not exactly the same than before and/or are not placed where they should be in Raccoon City.

Same thing for the story. During one mission you get to see what happened "behind the scene" of RE2 or 3, but during another one the plot becomes completely irrelevant to the franchise canon.

Gameplay-wise, the action is top notch and the guys at Slant Six Games have managed to give ORC a true identity. This game doesn't play exactly as ant generic shooter. Its mechanics and its enemies change everything.
You can make human enemies bleed or throw pheromones at them to enraged zombies and BOWs so they will attack them. You, also, can bleed and that puts you in great danger. Finally, everyone can become infected. Without a vaccine, the infected turns immediately into a Crimson Head and attack every living thing around him. All of those elements make the combat quite tactical. Using a group of zombies to attack enemies is a efficient way to progress.
Last thing : you can use the "Quick Draw", a fun way to move your character while covering every direction with your handgun. Useful when you're surrounded.

Making your way through dozens of zombies is really satisfying. Their behaviour is well rendered. The shooting has an "arcade" feeling to it (ie : In Hard mode, RE ORC is the kind of game where you have to shoot a human several times in the head to perform a headshot) but it's not bad. On the contrary, this is quite original nowadays where lots of game try to be "realistic".

Each character has three special skills. Vector can get invisible, use a motion detector or disguise himself as a human enemy. Four Eyes can infect a human enemy, throw pheromone or even make one BOW or zombie her ally for a short period of time. You got the drill : everyone of them is unique and has at least three ways to be played.

And that's where is the best part of the game : Multiplayer. Sure, it is a bit laggy but the gameplay is good. Team synergies are important and, most of all, BOW's are important. There is no other multiplayer game where a Hunter Alpha or a zombie pack can get between you and your target. And on some maps, a Tyrant T-103 can even spawn! Will the players keep on fighting while this new threat goes berserk inside their rank or will they cooperate to destroy it? It's up to them!

In retrospect, Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City is like most of the franchise's spin-off. It has flaws (It's buggy. The A.I. is bad. Online is laggy. Outside levels lack atmosphere like screaming in the distance and things like that. The game is sometime consistent with canon, sometime is not) but it has also great ideas and mechanics.

Sure it is different than the main games. That's the whole point of a spin-off! And this one deserves a sequel. It needs it to shine! Come on Capcom, don't let ORC in oblivion! Release a new game! One that is polished and that is true to the canon. I want to see the Wolf Pack again in a Operation Sheena Island game!

74

You should have known better...

Let me start with this: I loved Operation Racoon City. Even so I agree with the critics. The graphics are ok, you really have some weapons to purge the city and the idea of having skills is nice. The problem: uncut. The game had so much potential in my honest opinion, and somehow just don't seem to use it.

If you can get over the part where you're a bad guy, there's still the matter of this levelling up thingy. Getting XP for killing more infected, picking up some this and that? Nice. But getting all the skills after the first level? Nope. Don't get me wrong you can upgrade the character after that too, but loses it's magic.

Next: Covering system. Looks good. uhm... automatically? It's ok but sometimes being in cover while walking along a narrow floor, flattening against the wall? … Ok, next. Different weapons? Pretty, but you won't get the feeling of one weapon: "This is my boomstick!". And well try this game and you'll see one part...completely unacceptable. Just beacuse. You'll get it when you reach it... Despite these a huge point should go for this: This is Racoon City! (yup, no Sparta...) The game offers 4 player coop too, which you'll need trust me. The AI is...dumb, that simple. If you get over it, it's funny...but you, you won't. Even so Resident Evil: ORC (hehe) is a nice one, next time just give it more time Capcom, please.

80

Welcome to Raccoon City - Population: You

The overall impression I was left with from playing this one was Resident Evil 4 in multiplayer. I loved that title, and love playing this one as well! My favorite part of it has to be the fact that you're able to play as members of Umbrella's special forces unit. This puts the player in a unique position where they're pitted against both the zombies ravaging the city, and the more positive cast members belonging to the RCPD - characters we've played as ourselves in the past which must now be eliminated. It's a unique feel because the player gets to see parts of this blast from the past that were never told before. I find the gameplay itself enjoyable, and being able to kill zombies in a Resident Evil title with friends online is unbeatable as a time killer.

65

You sure my team aren't zombies?

Set in Raccoon City during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3, this game has you taking your team through streets, alleys and masses of zombies in order to complete your missions.

Story -
You are part of an elite team sent to Raccoon City by Umbrella to retrieve samples of the G-Virus created by William Birkin. Later missions will have you taking down the power in the city and destroying any evidence about what Umbrella has been doing. Along the way, you will meet some characters you should recognize if you have played the older games. The events of this game are not part of the series though, which does make sense.

Presentation -
This game is looking great. For a ruined city, this place is perfect. Raccoon City is wasted, just as it should be. Destroyed cars, dead bodies and burning wreckage all over the place. The indoor locations like Umbrella labs also look perfect. Moving onto the enemies, these are also as they should be. The zombies themselves look perfect for what they are.

Now we get to the sound, and that isn't so good. Forgettable music, poor voice acting and lacking sound effects all make me wonder if they tried here. Even the moans just aren't what they could be.

Controls -
As a game developed with consoles in mind, it is best to stick with a gamepad. Even the HUD features a DPad to select your grenades and healing items. Playing with the pad, most of the controls worked decently, though attempting to make headshots with the analog stick was aggravating. More than once, I'd use my mouse to aim for those bits.

Gameplay -
This game takes a massive departure from most of the other titles in the series, being a team based third person shooter with plenty of ammo to let lose at your enemies. Most enemies are bullet sponges though, and it will take time to clean up the mobs in your way. Nothing inspired here, it plays like many other team based shooters, such as the Left 4 Dead series.

There are six different character classes to pick from, each with their own active and passive skills to level up and use during gamplay, allowing different gameplay styles in your team. You have a Assault member, great with their guns, Demolitions who can set traps, a Medic for healing all your woes, a Scientist who can infect and control enemies, the Recon is all about stealth and finally the Surveillance member for boosting your ability to detect items and enemies.

The only problem with your team is that they are incredibly stupid, with me left wondering if even the zombie AI is smarter, since that lot don't get lost when attempting to hunt. This is easily fixed by having friends play, but unlike more popular titles, there isn't a lot of players around.

Lifespan -
With a total of six levels, I found this game to be rather short. Once you have beaten the game, you have a few things to do, such as trying to get higher ranks in each level, powering up each of your six characters and finding enough intel in the levels to unlock all images in the Gallery.

There are a number of multiplayer modes, but like co-op, you aren't going to have many people willing to play with you. I wouldn't depend on that unless you want to gift out several copies to people on your friend list.

There are also a number of DLCs available, though I'm only going to mention the important ones here, the Echo Six content. This adds additional missions to the Free Play mode, in which you play as another group, working against Umbrella. This group is nothing more than reskins of the original team though, with the same skills available, but the missions themselves are different. If you care for the gameplay, these are worth purchasing.

Closing -
While this game is nothing special, I enjoyed it enough that my purchase during a 75% off sale didn't feel like a rip off, as any early buyers would have felt. It has uninspired gameplay and isn't popular enough to fill a team for co-op, but it isn't bad.

52

Certainly not resident evil

This game has glimpses of what made resident evil the best zombie franchise for many years but in the end the it just wasn't enough.The over the top action isn't what made RE the best it was the puzzles and story line,this game has neither going for it.The generic story line is all to familiar with it's story being told about 10 different ways now by over more than a dozen different survivors from raccoon city.What happened to the days where the puzzles made us rage for hours until we figured them out and said OMG that's all i had to do.

This game is an action game not deemed worthy of the title resident evil.It could have easily been called zombie squadron elite patrol or some other non specific name that would never catch your eye and demand a (when released)50 dollar usd price tag.

In summary it's another failed attempt to grab your money by putting the t-virus,raccon city and zombies together.Save your money and wait until they start really trying to put together another decent resident evil game.Which in my opinion hasn't happened since re4.

This game got a 52 because if you play with your friends and joke about how bad they messed this game up you'll have fun trashing it for a while until you realize how much money you spent on it.

91

Awesome Coop and Multiplayer Fun

This is a great game to play with a group of one or more friends. The Coop is fun, but the Multiplayer Versus is even more intense. Highly recommend this game if you like zombie games. The only downside is GFWL, but it is bearable.

72

It's a good tps but not a good Resident Evil game

Despite being a good tps game, this game has almost non-existent horror. So you can't call it a horror game at all. It's a very good tps game and best played in co-op. It's more of a spin-off and less of Resident Evil game. Get it only if you intend to play co-op mode.

60

Wasted potential

I remember hearing about this game and thinking "awesome, can't wait" since I lamented the move away from "classic" RE to what the series is now, which while not terrible, isn't the same.

Sadly this game squanders the potential it had with clunky controls, terribly AI, and repetitive missions.

I understand that this game is meant to be played with people, but what if you don't have 3 others to play with? You're stuck with an AI squad member that doesn't even know enough to take cover and just aimlessly follows you around. The enemy AI isn't much better in most cases.

The missions more or less are "find this and bring it here" affairs which have alternating sections of gun enemies and then infected. The infected combat is actually not bad, but the gun toting guys just feel so alien to RE, like they were plucked out of CoD and dropped into Raccoon City like Mr. X.

Overall, its a decent play, but more for a die hard RE fan than the average gamer. Wait for a sale, if you get it at all.

80

A Tumble Down Memory Lane

I loved the original Resident Evil games, specifically Resident Evil 2 and 3 were my all time favorites. So when you say "Hey, we're making a game that goes back to Raccoon City and you play as Umbrella" I'm like TAKE MY MONEY DAMN IT!!!

But then reality sets in, and I realize the game plays nothing like those old resident evil games, it is also a huge departure from Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6. You die quickly, you need teamwork, and you are relying on skills that were never in any of the other games (like cloaking, thermal vision).

The game also focuses on multiplayer, which has never been a good thing in Resident Evil. However that all being said, I liked the game. It took me down that awesome trip of memory lane, and I had fun playing with friends.

If you have friends, love resident evil's history, and can swallow a few bad pieces of game mechanics (like poorly done chace scenes) then you'll enjoy this game. And honestly, what resident evil fan isn't used to bad game mechanics?

69

Game cooperative

70

Great Story, but buggy

In single play, the AI were not so great in the fact that they don't know how to revive other knocked out team mate and rely on you to revive them while fighting. The AI sometime also get stuck in the lift which mean you will have to go solo.

However this game have made a different impression on RE as this is base on a team of 4 which can be played with more friend and experience the game in other ways.

But overall this game has a great story just the buggy AI sometime ruining the fun but this game is great when played with friends.

Controls are best suited to mouse + KB. Wireless & Wired 360 gamepad's are supported. Mouse+kb are more accurate.T he game has no aim assist or auto aim so you need to be accurate in places.

Loading times are very fast no more than 5-10 seconds on an SSD.

Sound FX is excellent, Voiceovers are also very good. You will recognize a few familiar voices. Music is functional its really background noise (atmospheric) but the sound mixing is movie quality overall.

Game is designed to be a 4 player Co-Op experience but the AI is also good enough for solo play.

You can play the story mode in solo with 3 AI squad mates or public/private with randoms/friends.

SP is around 25 hours long. The various online game modes add about the same again but a lot more if you want to rise to the top of the leaderboards.

There are also lots of weapons/gadgets/upgrades to unlock with the XP you earn in all game modes (it stacks). Saving is via checkpoints which are fast & seamless apart from a small onscreen disk drive icon.

Steam + GFWL are the only DRM used here & it has unlimited activations as long as you use the same gamertag it was first registered to (ensure your also using a gamertag from the 35 supported GFWL regions).

It even has a multiplayer mode similar to COD Black Ops Zombies where you get infected and can turn on your squad mates.

80

Good game on it's own merits

Keep in mind most people that give the game a negative rating don't seem to be able to divorce this game's playstyle from older Resident Evils. The focus is on an umbrella commando team so the playstyle is more like a third person shooter. The game is not perfect by any means but it's got enough of it's own unique features combined with elements from the RE universe which I enjoyed. Also the enemies have been described as "bullet sponges" but seriously, what Resident Evil didnt have bullet sponge enemies? Think about it.

63

Eh, it's ok..

It's a good game if you got a friend to play with or random people to join.. but if you are planning to play this alone well then, buy it on sale because it's a very short and lack luster game for playing alone. It can be fun at times yeah but it gets boring and that's where having friends can make it fun.

45

Great concept, not so great execution

Operation Raccoon is different from what you'd expect from a Resident Evil title. This manages to be both a good and a bad thing. The concept of working with team mates as you fight through Raccoon is good and the idea of changing the canon timeline of Resident Evil is interesting but ultimately wasted.

In single player the game is an exercise in frustration. Braindead AI, bullet sponge enemies and unresponsive controls gives a poor impression. The game does get much more fun online but sadly the online died out pretty quickly and it still doesn't really fix the bullet sponge enemies or controls.

Not really worth it.

80

Better than expected

This is an action game. There are virtually no elements of survival horror like the earlier RE's had, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I quite enjoyed the game play, despite some discrepancy in enemy health. i also liked the introduction of the playable Umbrella Operatives. ORC also features many cameos of familiar RE characters, such as Leon, William Birkin, and Hunk. I experienced a few bugs that required me to restart a checkpoint and lose progress, so extra polish would have been nice. The visuals looked crisp and the game seems well optimized for PC

70

Its not a bad game

People looking for a Resident Evil game play experience will not get it from this game. Its a straight up squad based shooter. Its feels like a Resident Evil game but doesn't play like one. Raccoon City is rendered very nicely and as you play you will be reminded of RE2 and RE3. Fighting zombies in the streets is great but most of the combat is against other military groups.
Co-op was a pretty daring direction for RE but, I feel that it works. As I'm playing through with my friends its got pretty some intense moments. I love the style of the team and I'm having fun playing it.
Its not a bad game.

75

It's not the Resident Evil that we are used to see but it's good

Like I said in the title, it is different from Resident Evil game. It is a squad game that we make our squad, equip it, catch things during the stages, and all the things that we know. So, of course that people like us that are fan of the franchise will be bothered to see the game so mischaracterized. We do not feel that horror atmosphere and the story that are some of the main components to give us the experience that all of them gave. Of course that the first ones was something different, something special, mainly because was primitive. Well, some people complain about the 4 and 5 but it was a necessary change to fit in this game era. Operation Racoon City is differet because wants different goals. The gameplay is good for an action game and the graphics is algo good for this generation. So, if you are looking for a action game, give a chance for this game. It is cool to play.

80

Good game

Resident Evil Operation Racoon City is obviously different from the previous games from the series. It seems like Resident Evil 4 and 5 but it is more focused on cooperative gameplay, even if we compare with 5. A lot of people, mainly who miss the classic games like 1, 2 and 3 will complain about the style of the game. It is an action game like Left 4 Dead but with more options and more polish. You can unlock a lot of things during the game and it is quite interesting. The graphics is in the same level of the average games that we see nowadays and the gameplay is good. The mechanics is a little bit strange if we compare to other shooters. It is not so fluid and just a little "locked". If you are looking for a good action game and like to play with friends you must buy it and have fun. If you are a Resident Evil big fan you will not like so much the style of the game but not because is bad, but because you will look for Resident Evil things that the game does not have. So, forget a little bit that is a game from the series and have fun. You will not regret.

79

A real twist for the franchise

Operation Raccoon City doesn't feel like a Resident Evil game, it feels like a Left 4 Dead or Killing Floor, it is game designed for cooperative gameplay because the AI is terrible.

If you have enough friends to fill a squad, you will enjoy a lot playing the fourteen missions of the game, also the replay value is good because the random elements and a lot of unlockables like weapons and gadgets that you will earn with the experience points.

Basically this game is a squad shooter where you need a lot teamwork to find items, heal each other and defeat the bosses.

If you are looking for a classic Resident Evil game, this Operation Raccoon City is not for you but if you want a fun Co-op experience buy it.